Visit to Emergency Room

Hey ya'll. Sorry about that last little vent, hehe. Things are still yicky here. Philip seemed to have recovered from Mono for about 5 days, then seemed to relapse, except this time with a non stop cough. It has been a rough few days. On the advice of a friend, we called our family doctor and ended up heading over to the local emergency room with the belief he may have pneumonia. Tests confirmed our suspicions. As much as I would love to feel confident enough to go all natural, I am just not experienced enough in health care --naturopathy, homeopathy, herbal, none of it---though we have tried each approach at different times in the kids' lives. I know how it might sound to those of you that are on natural paths that don't include allopathic, but my husband and I still "need" the advice of a medical doctor when dealing with illness's we are unfamiliar with. Give me a cold, a teething baby, a pregnant belly, anything I've experienced before and handled well, and I can handle it with natural remedies and chiropractic care. Give me a child that is coughing to the point of vomiting and has already been weak and sick for 5 weeks, and I'm throwing my ideals out the window and heading to the MD. So, Philip has been diagnosed with pneumonia. When the doctor first looked over the x-rays with me, he said they looked normal and we were just going to treat Philip for asthmatic bronchitis. He was actually very easy to talk with, explained all the remedies and why he was prescribing each one. ----A steroid for the cough, along with an albuterol inhaler, and antibiotics. I did question the antibiotics and the doctor explained that while Philip is on the steroids, his immune system will be weak. HA! Just what we need. He thinks the coughing is a separate issue from the previous diagnosis of Mono. So, I go back into the room they had us in and explain everything to Philip. Then the doctor comes back in, takes me aside again, and says "this is why we have radiologists to read x-rays." He shows me a small part in the lower left lung that they are now calling pneumonia. It's the same treatment as before, except the doctor knows I will feel better about giving P the antibiotics now that I know it's actually pneumonia.
And something I found quite amusing: We don't immunize. I forgot I'd be questioned about whether we are up to date on all the shots, etc. Philip had been sitting in the chair practically begging for a bed since we'd been got called back to intake. I answered honestly that we stopped all shots with Philip at the age of 4. The intake lady picked up a phone, handed Philip a mask and asked him to immediately put it on, and suddenly we were in a room with a TV and a remote, all to ourselves for the record shortest visit to the E.R. ever! One more reason not to vaccinate!
My sweet son is having a very rough time with the terrible taste of the steroid and with the medications in general. He is too much like his Mama and would much rather handle things non-medically. He has never jumped to take the yummy flavored cough syrups or even our all-natural syrups. Please keep my boy in your thoughts and prayers. And Tyler too, as we go tomorrow for his food allergy testing. Phew, what a few weeks!! On the upside, I have recently been introduced to X-Files and am enjoying the series starting with the first season. I also got to see the new movie.
G'night.